I'd like feedback on alignment specs

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Mad4Macs

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Tomorrow, I'm replacing the front's for the 3rd time. There's no way, however, that I'm ever going to allow the inner treads to look like they do right now.
Hopefully, someone here has got some miles on their car using Carfixers specs, and if so, there's a couple of things I'd like to know.
1st, how many miles have you put on since the alignment? My tires are SHOT at 19k, and I'd like to believe that the BFG's can run longer that that.
2nd, how did it affect the driveability of the car?
I'm not canyon carving. For the most part, the most serious turn I make each day is when pulling into the driveway, but I don't want to make the front feel like I'm pushing bricks, either.
Thanks...

Clarifying that my front tires are shot, with 19k on them. I've got 54,000 on the car, hence my 3rd set of fronts.
 
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Mad4Macs said:
Tomorrow, I'm replacing the front's for the 3rd time. There's no way, however, that I'm ever going to allow the inner treads to look like they do right now.
Hopefully, someone here has got some miles on their car using Carfixers specs, and if so, there's a couple of things I'd like to know.
1st, how many miles have you put on since the alignment? My tires are SHOT at 19k, and I'd like to believe that the BFG's can run longer that that.
2nd, how did it affect the driveability of the car?
I'm not canyon carving. For the most part, the most serious turn I make each day is when pulling into the driveway, but I don't want to make the front feel like I'm pushing bricks, either.
Thanks...
Click to expand...

Carfixer aligned my car at 11000 miles. I now have 23000 on the fronts and they're wearing perfectly. I have noticed no ill-affects from his settings. In fact, my car handled better after he aligned it. By the looks of it, I should easily get over 30000 miles out of my front tires.
 
Mad4Macs said:
Hopefully, someone here has got some miles on their car using Carfixers specs, and if so, there's a couple of things I'd like to know.
1st, how many miles have you put on since the alignment? My tires are SHOT at 19k, and I'd like to believe that the BFG's can run longer that that.
Click to expand...
I replaced my rear tires at 21K. However, my front tires are still going strong at 27,800 miles just the way I got it from the dealer.
 
Replaced the rears at 23K (down to cords/no replacements available), still have the fronts with a little over 25K. When I put on new fronts will have the alignment done with the specs as published here.
 
Get the alignment done. Use carfixer's specs. You won't be sorry.

Our original fronts lasted almost 30,000, but the insides were about trashed. I got an alignment using David Morton's specs (pretty much the same as carfixer's) and the new tires have something like 11,000 on them now and are wearing fine. I noticed no difference in handling.
 
I had the specs mentioned from the first week I owned mine. Went in to the dealership and tipped the front-end man $5 to use my specific specs, still within factroy tolerances. I drove for 17,000 miles with -0.2 camber both sides and zero toe. Great wear, handled well, no complaints. But...

I had accepted the "rut steer' problem as something I should just be prepared for and live with. Bradenton paves it's roads with the modern "recycled tire" stuff most cities use and many of the roads here have huge 1/2" high raised lines because of the paint on them, doesn't wear out while the road does. This meant that I was always on my toes when making lane changes, and there were many times when things got hairy.

Recently a thread here got me back to thinking about alignment angles and after much consideration, I had my alignment reset to factory specs. -0.7D camber on both sides and -0.13D toe.

I was amazed at the difference! Now the car glides over these lines with almost no noticeable effect and no input to the steering wheel at all.

I am glad I went back to the factory specs. I finally figured out that I was spending ten times the money per mile for gasoline than I was for tires, and I wasn't creeping along trying to get a few more miles to the gallon! Why would I now be driving on pins and needles on these crappy roads worried about diving into the next lane just to get a few more miles on the front tires?

I had 17,000 miles experience with the handling on those specs that gave good wear. I haven't noticed any loss of traction in the twistys since I went back to factory settings.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
 
I have been using Carfixer's specs since replacing the front tires 12,000 miles ago. The front tires are wearing well. I do not notice any handling or ride deterioration using Carfixer's specs.
 
With my car at 54,000, I have had 3 sets (6 tires) demolished.
Each time, there has been plenty of tread over the visible portion of the tire, but the inner sides of the tires were worn THROUGH the steel cords.
Last week, a tire failed on me while doing 65 MPH on the freeway. My tires are always kept at the factory recommended inflation, and I didn't hit anything. The folks that replaced my tires this time, showed me how grossly misworn inner tread had caused the failure. The tire that blew had a 4 inch long section that had failed, and steel cords were visible on the entire circumference.
As the tires still had plenty of tread visible from the road, I had no indication things were that bad. The manager of the shop even pointed out, that given the tread depth still available, I should have gotten 8 to 10 thousand more miles from them.
I'm going to try this new aligment out, and whether or not I like it, I'll give feedback on it, but I doubt no matter how bad it is, that any decrease in mileage will equal the $800.00 I spent replacing the tires.
And lets not forget the experience of having a blow out on a snowy freeway.
Something is wrong with the way my car is set up, and to continue on as I've done so far makes no sense at all.
 
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I used Carfixers alignment when I installed my Eibach springs and KDW2 tires. So far, the fronts look brand new and my rears are wearing evenly. (they wear out faster due to constant wheel spinning) I have no complaints. Over 8k miles since.
 
Dealer Settings.

I have 24K on my fronts. Rears were gone at 13K. Just put snows on and when I pulled the OEM I discovered the Marauder wear pattern on the inside of both fronts. The rest of the tire has a litle life left in it. It's no wonder I couldn't turn on snowy roads...

Did hit a pretty big hole cut in the road (chewed the lip of my front wheel). Alignment is likely off.

Do the dealers make adjustments for this car and its individual qwerks?
 
It's all Greek to me...

Not that any of this makes any sense to me, but here it is;

"Before-Actual alignment"
------------Left-----------------------Right

Camber-- -1.4---------------------- -1.5------------Spec is -1.25 to .25 max
Caster---- 5.1----------------------- 5.7------------Spec is 5.05 to 6.55 max
Toe------- -.35---------------------- .31------------Spec is -.18 to .03 max

"After-Actual alignment
------------Left-----------------------Right
Camber--- -.5------------------------ -.2
Caster----- 5.9----------------------- 6.1
Toe-------- .02------------------------ .01

Does the car feel different? Yes, but I'm not sure how to describe it yet.
It seems that the steering has more of a "center" to it, though, and it feels like it responds a little quicker to "left/right" input.
Also, it no longer pulls into oncoming traffic when I let go of the wheel.
I like that feeling :D
 
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Those after specs look pretty good to me. If the left camber were a little closer to zero it would be ideal but I've had trouble on a couple of MM's getting enough adjustment (camber) on the left side.
If you run the stock specs you WILL have inner tire wear!
I adjusted mine at 6000 miles to carfixers specs and now have 22k on the original front tires. I drive hard. Looks like I'll be replacing the fronts at about 27k judging by current wear pattern. I can live w/that.
 
What about having the car turned on, so the air bags are active, when having the alignment done?

My car has had a slight pull to the right ever since I got it and one of only 2 warranty items done on the car prior to my purchase was an alignment, so Ford would not do it again. So, I was planning on taking the car in to have one of the top shops around her do an alignment in the spring when the stock wheels/tires go back on (winters on there now). Planning on going with Carfixer's spec's that I printed out, but my front tire wear when I took the wheels/tires off this fall looked pretty even all the way across. Backs are looking pretty decent, too. But they only have about 11,000 miles on them so far. Guess we will see how they make it through 2006. Guess I will need new tires by the end of 2006 or to start 2007 since I commute about 500+ miles per week.
 
Mad4Macs said:
"After-Actual alignment
------------Left-----------------------Right
Camber--- -.5------------------------ -.2
Caster----- 5.9----------------------- 6.1
Toe-------- .02------------------------ .01
Click to expand...

With specs like this, if that was all the closer to 0 they could get on the left, should you move the right closer to that -.5 degrees so that the sides are they same or as close to the same as possible (both as close to the preferred specs, but the same on both sides)?
 
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